h, when it will say, I
AM; and there will be no other voice on earth able to reply, 'I ALSO
AM!'

THE MAN. And then?

PANCRATIUS. A race will spring from the generation I am now quickening
and elevating, stronger, higher, and nobler than any the world has yet
produced; the earth has never yet seen such men upon her bosom. They
will be free, lords of the globe from pole to pole; the earth will be a
blooming garden, every part of her surface under the highest culture;
the sea will be covered with floating palaces and argosies of wealth and
commerce; a universal exchange of commodities will carry civilization,
mutual recognition, and comfort to every clime; prosperous cities will
crown every height, and expand their blessings of refinement and culture
o'er every plain; earth will then offer happy and tranquil homes to all
her children, she will be one vast and united house of blissful industry
and highest art!

THE MAN. Your words and voice dissemble well, but your pale and rigid
features in vain struggle to assume the generous glow of a noble
enthusiasm, which your soul cannot feel.

PANCRATIUS. Interrupt me not! Men have begged on bended knees before me
for such prophecies.

The world of the Future will possess a god whose highest fact will not
be his own defeat and death upon a cross; a god whom the people, by
their own power and skill, _will force_ to unveil his face to them; a
god who will be torn by the very children whom he once scattered over
the face of the earth in his anger, from the infinite recesses of the
distant heavens in which he loves to hide! Babel will be no more, all
tribes and nations will meet and understand their mutual wants, and,
united by a _universal language_, his scattered children, having
attained their majority, assert their _right_ to know their creator, and
claim their just inheritance from a common father: '_the full possession
of all truth_!'

The god of humanity at last reveals himself to man!

THE MAN. Yes, He revealed Himself some centuries ago; through Him is
humanity already redeemed.

PANCRATIUS. Alas! let the redeemed delight in the sweetness of such
redemption! let them rejoice in the multiplied agonies which have in
vain cried to a Redeemer for relief during the three thousand years
which have elapsed since His defeat and death!

THE MAN. Blasphemer, cease! I have seen the Cross, the holy symbol of
His mystic love, standing in the heart of the eternal city, Rome; the